paixaorpg | The Hunter and the Hunted [active]

Entry tags:

The Hunter and the Hunted [active]

Character(s): Saïx, possibly others?
Content: Saïx looks into the city's latest disturbance
Setting: On top of the buildings in the G7 area
Time: evening
Warnings: none yet

There had been deaths here, he could feel it; could feel the power it had yielded. Deaths that had gone to fuel the monstrosity that roamed the city now, no doubt - he didn't need to peer into the paths of the past to find that out. And besides, it had long since gotten past the point that he really cared how it had been made or be whom, not that he'd ever really cared in the first place. The thing had been brought into the city and he would see to that it was sent back out.

It wasn't even that he was doing this so much because he was deeply concerned over the loss of life that had caused - an impossibility for him no matter how one sliced it - but because this had gone on long enough and the shrill cries of the dead that it had spawned were beginning to grate on his ears.

The only question was, where to begin? No doubt there were already people who were either in the process of attempting to chain the beast or had already attempted to. The only question was who and when and that at least he could find relatively easily. And if someone came across him while he was seeking his answers in the moon, well, there wasn't anything to tie him to the Organization - he'd long since abandoned the identifiable black of the Organization for an outfit that was predominantly blue and silver. And anything else that cropped up he could deal with.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Kefka had heard the sweet sound of death throes and had come running. It wasn't that he was curious about the creature, or even that he was jealous of the rampant destruction and death it produced in its wake. No, Kefka just wanted to watch, maybe cheer it on, maybe harness it to his own uses, maybe just slowly torture those it left behind. There were far too many possibilities to choose from!

For now, though, he would just delight in the destruction. The mage was practically skipping through the corpses, pausing to lean over and mock one of them from time to time. "Oh, you couldn't get out of the way? Too bad...!" "Guess you won't be doing much shopping today!" "Awww... Don't worry, you'll get better! Oops... too late! Uwee-hee-hee!"

Oh yes, this was just great! He loomed over one last body, a wicked grin spreading across his face. "Now what to do with you...? I can't just leave you sitting there, can I? Of course not! You'll just end up stinking up the place, as wonderful a decoration as you are... Oh! I know!"

With a flick of his wrist, a flame appeared above his palm. "I'll just burn you all! Everyone loves a bonfire!" he cried before letting out a loud, whooping laugh.

Well this was interesting. Envy had taken the form of the red-haired man again - Axel, he thought, according to Larxene - with enough changes to make people who knew the original do a double-take but not quite recognize him. What could he say? He liked it.

Though evidently anything he could come up with had just been out-crazied by the pyromaniac he'd just run across. Talk about an inopportune time to turn the corner.

"Well, sure," he replied to the man's statement, "but did you bring enough marshmallows for everybody?" Not that making s'mores over dead bodies was Envy's cup of tea - the remark was just too good to pass up, and it was better to be a smartass than to stand there silent. Silent people look scared, and that was one thing Envy sure as hell wasn't.

Meanwhile, a pair of Reapers traveled deftly from rooftop to rooftop. It wasn't that they'd gotten bored of watching the mobs in the street duke it out... well, no, it was. From there, anyway. Thus they'd unanimously decided to move on and see if they could find a better view of the stuff down below from somewhere else. Kariya for one was in no hurry, though.

It wasn't long before he realized they weren't the only roof hoppers up here. "Whoop. Bogey at eleven o'clock," he said offhandedly to Uzuki, steering himself vaguely in the direction of the blue-haired whoever.

He set down lightly ten or fifteen feet behind the guy as they arrived. "Oh, our bad. Is this roof taken?" he said casually. (Not that he intended to leave or anything if he got a yes.)

Monsters were fun and all, but it was better when you were watching someone who could give a better reaction to your presence. After all, what was the fun in being a passive observer?

It wasn't often they ran into others on their rooftop travels, bu this just served to focus Uzuki's attention. Someone else who was watching? An orchestrator of this mess?

Whatever. As long as it was interesting. She landed beside Kariya. "There's enough roof to share~"

So he had company, then? Not entirely surprising all things considered - death did tend to bring the scavengers running after all. Of course, he wasn't looking for scavengers but knowing who they were might be useful all the same.

"As she says," he answered, turning to look at his fellow roof-hoppers. The others down at street level could wait for the time being and even if the bonfires got out of hand, he was hardly going to be the one best suited to extinguishing them.

Besides, with the distractions he rather doubted he'd get the answers he'd come here for tonight and so he may as well pretend at politeness for the time being.

Kefka jumped about a foot in the air at Envy's voice. He hadn't been expecting company. Not that it really mattered in the end, but it still gave him quite a start. He took a moment to reorient himself before giving the guy a once-over. That had to be the reddest hair he'd ever seen. What, was it some sort of dye-job gone horribly wrong or was his mother a can of paint?

"Who are you?" the mage asked instead of shooting back with a quip of his own. Really, he just wanted the bystander to get out of his sight. An audience was all well and good, but he just wasn't in the mood for one at the moment. Was it too much to ask to have a little carnage in peace? Oh well. Let the idiot watch them burn. If he had a problem with it, Kefka would just add him to the pile.

The flame disappeared and with the next flick of the wrist, a few bodies caught alight. A few screams shot up and some of the bodies writhed in agony, which significantly bettered Kefka's mood, his expression shifting from one of boredom and annoyance to one of sadistic delight. So there had been a few survivors after all!

"Nobody special," Envy replied rather uncreatively. He actually hadn't expected the Clown of Death to be surprised at his presence. Evidently Envy was still a sneaky little bastard even when in plain sight. The thought rather pleased him.

He watched impassively as the flames caught and spread. He'd seen much more impressive displays of fire back during the Ishbalan war. There was only so much a crazy guy in a ruff could do, he guessed.

"Keep this up," he commented lightly, "and the whole city's gonna smell."

"Perfect," said Kariya, strolling over to the opposite edge of the roof. The screaming and the thick smell of death floating up from below had already given him a pretty good idea what was going on down there, but, call it morbid curiosity. The fact that it was some kind of evil clown setting people on fire elicited a raised eyebrow from him, but otherwise his expression remained flatly amused.

He wasn't, though, not as much as he looked. Obviously, he saw a lot of death in his line of work, but this just seemed a little ... gratuitous. Total waste of Soul, too.

Speaking of which... Among the flames, he spotted a brief burst of white light, and when it had disappeared, so had the body it came from. Kariya twirled his lollipop absently between his fingers. "Well, that's interesting," he said.

"Well someone is certainly a pyromaniac," Uzuki said in a tone of only idle interest, although her eyes glittered at the thought of the city containing such curious people--or not-people, as the case may be.

For the odd symmetry of the blonds, the ones who weren't seemed to be trying their best to make up for this. They must have been visitors, like she and Kariya were.

Uzuki toyed with yet another Noise pin, considering unleashing it below and enjoying the further chaos.

Interesting? Not really, considering just what the man was setting on fire. But he wasn't going to admit to that. Better he played the simple bystander for now. It was a little unfortunate that there wouldn't be survivors of this little attack - he'd have to find answers from elsewhere.

Not that that would make much of a difference in the end. It wasn't like talking to the citizens was his only source of information.

"Whatever it was I rather doubt we'll get a good look at it now."

"Gets rid of the useless wastes of space, doesn't it?" Kefka snapped back. "At least some were still alive." He sighed overdramatically. "It's just so much more boring when you don't hear them scream." His wicked grin only grew wider and darker before he spun on his heel, turning to watch the carnage.

...

Where was the carnage? The mage's expression turned to one of confusion, then disappointment, then anger. "Where did they go?! You'd think you'd still see a silhouette there or something! Damn it all!" Kefka shouted to no one before his rage seemed to turn toward the disappeared bodies.

"You're supposed to stay there while you fry! Come back and start screaming again you little...! How dare you...!" It finally culminated in one last frustrated cry, followed by two strikes of lightning into the flames before Kefka finally calmed down, settling into a huff.

"Sorry to spoil your fun," Envy retorted flatly, turning his gaze to the direction the crazy clown was looking. He didn't even bother to express his surprise that the masses of burning people had disappeared - the wacko's reaction was more than he could manage on a good (or bad, depending) day, so why try?

Plus, on some level, it was still more amusing to watch this guy flip the hell out over his sudden loss of bonfire.

So, he wasn't the only one who'd noticed. Kariya filed that away with the rest of his new information. That wasn't ordinary death they were watching; it was mass erasure. Silently, his theory on what this place was underwent some revisions.

It asked more questions than it answered, though. And their blue-headed friend was right; there wasn't much more they'd probably find out by standing around here all day.

"Not when the evidence destroys itself," he commented in response. He glanced briefly at Uzuki (her pin-fiddling didn't escape his notice), then back at the insane clown posse below. "He looks so disappointed. Think we should give him a present on the way out?"

Uzuki's eyes narrowed as she watched the odd clown's rage. Those bodies--well, they weren't there. So if this was a place where people were erased, then was this some sort of warped UG? The idea soured her mood somewhat; it was certainly nothing she had been informed of, and she didn't like the idea of being in the middle of it and clueless.

She came back to reality when Kariya spoke to her, and remembered the pin in her hands. Well, she did already have it out.

With a giggle, she released Noise--hopping technicolor kangaroos of all things--to go play with the clown. Maybe he would find these more interesting?

As far as Saïx was concerned, it was a good thing the evidence had a habit of erasing itself. It was far easier than having to explain why natives of the places weren't quite what they seemed. And sooner or later someone would bring it up if things were different. Not that he was going to mention that, of course.

Or anything else for the time being, instead falling silent to watch how the pair on the streets would react to the... whatevers-they-were that the woman had sent their way.

It didn't take long for Kefka to notice the strange creatures bounding their way toward him (how could it? The things were practically neon). And he did find them interesting... No, no, he just found them annoying and wanted them dead. Oh well, they were something new to take up his time with.

He didn't really care what they were or what they were doing, these... whatevers were going to fry. Or drown. Or be electrocuted. Or freeze. Oh, there were just too many choices~!

Kefka's distasteful look only lasted for as long as it took him to decide, and shortly after, spikes of ice shot up from the ground, the mage cackling to himself before firing off more lightning.

He'd get them with all four!

It didn't take Envy long to notice them either, or to get out of their way. They looked like someone's drug trip gone wrong, and that wasn't something he was going to tangle with - not until he knew what they were at least. "What the hell?" he complained, dodging out of the way of beast and spell alike. Maybe the crazy clown guy had made these. They sure fit him.

And that was that. He didn't bother biting back a wide smirk at the two's reactions. Those particular Noise weren't the biggest in their bag of tricks, and most likely wouldn't be enough to kill them, especially with the clown's level of psych skill - he might be one to keep an eye on later, actually - but the initial "WTF" never really got old.

In the meantime, they had more pressing concerns to worry about. Kariya straightened up (well, sort of) and stretched as if he'd been holding still for rather longer than the last five minutes. "'s get some grub, I'm starving," he said to Uzuki, then turned to go.

"Hey, X, let us know how it ends," he added over his shoulder, this time to Saïx, although he didn't really expect him to oblige.

"You should have eaten when we were at the cafe," Uzuki said, but left the Noise to their work and fell into step beside Kariya anyway. Really, watching would have been more interesting with popcorn.

She waved to the blue-haired man with her usual level of sugary sweetness, and then left with her partner.

X? Not a name he would have chosen for himself, but there was a least a sort of logic to it. Not much, but enough for him to recognize where it had come from.

Of course, he had no interest whatsoever in letting anyone know how things eventually turned out, with the possible exception of Xemnas. He hadn't asked for the company tonight, but he'd watch all the same. The man below seemed quite adept at killing corpses, but how would he deal with this strange creatures?

He didn't bother waving to the pair as the left, instead turning his attentions to the street below. It looked like that was were the more interesting things were going to be for the moment.

The mage continued to shoot off spell after spell, only wishing whatever these things were could appreciate a good taunt. He would have loved to completely destroy whatever it was that made them them (although whatever made them would have been just as good), but completely destroying just them would suffice.

It was more of a game to Kefka, really. The brightly colored creatures were nothing, worthless compared to him and about the same level as everything else. And as such, they had just about the same right to live as everything else. Everything would fall to ruin someday. He was just getting it all over with.

Unfortunately, his game of "kill the worthless neon scum" was cut short as one of the creatures hopped up into the air and dropped back down shortly afterward, nearly crushing him beneath. Kefka snarled--how dare it attack back!--and attempted to throw another spell its way, only to find that he was out of mana.

"Hey! You! Are you going to sit there and gape or are you going to help?!" Kefka snapped at the redhead, "How dare you make me do all the work!"

If there was one thing Envy hated, it was being taken by surprise. Unfortunately, that was all that had been happening to him since he'd gotten to this damn city, and the arrival of these multicolored death creatures were no exception.

He sure wasn't expecting the clown freak to turn on him either. "What? Hell no," he replied flatly. "You're having enough fun as it is, and I wouldn't want to get in the way of that." He normally would have been falsely sweet, but between beasts and freaks he'd dropped into caustic sarcasm.

That was, of course, right before one of the psychadelic beasts nearly dropped on him. "Gah!" He threw himself backwards, narrowly dodging the attack. It didn't take him long to launch a roundhouse kick at the beast, more out of sheer frustration than anything else. The creature, of course, went flying - Envy didn't look it, but he had quite a bit of weight to put behind his attacks - and Envy turned away from the battle at hand, fully intending to leave the clown to his own devices.

Ah. The mage seemed to have hit his limit on spell-casting for the time being. The only question was how well he'd take to that, especially when it seemed that his temporary ally wasn't going be staying much longer. A shame if he did though; it would be interesting to see how he fought if that kick had been any indication.

But regardless of what went on down below, he wasn't going to reveal himself just yet. No need for him to step in if they had things well in hand, after all.

Kefka grinned as he saw the man get attacked. Ha, served him right! He only wished he had enough mana left to throw up an illusion in order to force him to fight for him. Especially with that kick! The worm was stronger than he looked!

Except now he was leaving again, and the mage had to dodge another attack, and he wasn't about to stick around any longer to see just how close these neon whatevers were going to end up getting and how long they'd try and kill him. Needless to say, he wasn't going to stick around.

He was about ready to run off when he caught a glimpse of something out of the corner of his eye. He turned and immediately glared, noticing the figure on the rooftops. So that was the culprit, huh? Well then, once he had his magic back, little boy blue was going to get a piece of his mind.

Just because he was facing away didn't mean Envy wasn't playing attention. It looked like the clown had had enough too, though Envy had to wonder why he wasn't just blowing them all up.

So it really caught Envy's attention when the clown just stopped and started staring at something. Envy spared a glance back - like hell was he falling for an obvious bluff - and caught sight of what the clown had seen: a man on the roof. The guy was probably responsible for the multicolored chimeras (or whatever the hell they were).

Well screw that. Envy was supposed to mess with people, not the other way around! All it took to get on the nearest roof was a short sprint, two jumps, and a hell of a lot of frustration that needed to go somewhere. Envy ignored the damage that his landing had caused the roof (someone else could worry about that), focused instead on the guy. He'd better have a good explanation, or Envy would waste no time in feeding him to his pets.

Well, that was at least mildly impressive. Of course, he was no more responsible for the creatures then Envy himself, but he could deal with that when it came up. For the time being, he'd simply play the part of the (relatively) innocent bystander. It wouldn't even be far from the truth; he'd done nothing except show a certain amount of disinterest in helping a pair of strangers.

Nothing to suggest that he'd been the culprit except for him being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

"Good evening," he commented to Envy as soon as he arrived on top of the roof, all but ignoring the fact that Envy looked more than a little angry.

Edited 2008-08-22 20:07 (UTC)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

The Hunter and the Hunted [active]

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject